UK retailers call for business rates and planning reform after fall in shoppers

Teesside Park. Retailers are feeling the effects of poor weather, depressed consumer confidence, working from home and online shopping. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Retailers have called on the government to rethink business rates and planning laws to revive high streets and shopping centres after visitor numbers fell again in May.

Shoppers at stores on high streets, shopping centres and retail parks decreased by 3.6% in May, maintaining a trend that began last summer as a mini-boom in high street visits after the pandemic lockdowns petered out.